The T-shirts feature images of 'Polite People' and the flag of the confederation of eastern Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics

Russian lawmakers inspect a T-shirt

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. A delegation of Novorossiya, which is a confederation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, has asked the Russian parliament leaders to organize a charity sale of T-shirts with emblems of protest movement in eastern Ukraine.

The request was made public on Friday by the deputy chairman of the Duma committee for culture, the popular signer Iosif Kobzon, who is a native of the Donetsk region.

Kobzon asked the deputies to buy the popular prints featuring the topic of "Polite People" and Novorossiya.

“Polite People” is the term Crimean citizens used for servicemen without insignia who ensured security during the March referendum in Crimea, when the majority voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia. The expression was used for the first time by Vladimir Putin during an annual Q&A session in spring. The full formulation he gave was 'polite people in fatigues and balaclavas, with automatic rifles.'

In the historical aspect, Novorossiya is an area along the coast of the Sea of Azov and the northern coast of the Black Sea after its incorporation in the Russian Empire in the 1760's.

Kobzon showed examples of the outfit to the fellow-deputies in the Duma on Friday. It was a black T-shirt showing a military serviceman in uniform and the 'polite people' phrase on one side. The other side featured a flag - a blue diagonal cross on red background and the word 'Novorossiya'.

The T-shirts with 'polite people' appeared on sale in Moscow. Two collections of outfits designed for the 'Vsyo Putyom' (Life is Alright) project were put up for sale in July and August in the famous GUM supermarket on Red Square.

'Polite people' vests can be found in Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's stock of clothes. He said in an interview with TASS in September that he had received several versions of them as gifts.

One of the versions contained Putin's portrait in sunglasses captioned 'the politest of all men'.